According to Dr Connal Parr, Senior Lecturer in History at Northumbria University, no-deal Brexit is essentially the only scenario that awaits the United Kingdom at the present moment.
Sputnik: Is a no-deal Brexit now inevitable?
Dr Connal Parr: I think that a no-deal Brexit is now completely inevitable, and there’s no doubt that this has been set up for some time, and this obviously relates to the fact that the EU has said repeatedly that they won’t reopen the negotiating process which would change the agreement that has already been made, which was made by Theresa May; so I think that’s completely inevitable.
The UK government has also kind of committed to that because they want to fulfil Brexit so that no deal inevitability is there. The cash injection is probably the first sign that the British government has decided that they will essentially prepare for that process, but whether that injection is going to be enough to satisfy the situation around the border in Ireland is another question, and there probably needs to be an additional stimulus package, or some kind of cash injection in that region, but that is the first sign for me that the British government is preparing for this scenario.
Sputnik: Would Boris Johnson be able to win a general election if his government delivers Brexit?
Dr Connal Parr: I think an election is in the offing. What will happen is that a form of Brexit may be delivered; there may be a temporary very difficult situation in Ireland and some immediate economic damage, but with Brexit having then been delivered, there will then be an election. I predict that Johnson will win a majority against Jeremy Corbyn, and therefore will then be able to ditch the agreement which Theresa May was reliant on with the DUP, and then the backstop can be agreed with Ireland, and a deal of some kind will be made after that initial period. I think it’s going to be a very rocky and tumultuous phase that we are heading into, but then after the election; an agreement and a deal will then be struck.
Sputnik: Could other countries within the EU want to leave the bloc in the near future?
Dr Connal Parr: If you look at the levels of support for the EU in other countries; there are some which are quite low down as well, but there’s always been a level of suspicion and hostility towards the European project from the UK. The other countries which I see which have low EU approval ratings are those with perhaps more right wing elements, for example with Orban in Hungary.
Surprisingly in places like France which also has Marine Le Pen’s Front National Party, which is quite hostile towards the EU; even there it’s something like seventy two percent of support in favour of the EU, so the only other place to keep an eye on is Italy, which is developing more of a kind of problem with Europe, and it’s related again to migration issues, which ironically came into being with the European Union referendum in the UK.
Views and opinions, expressed in the article are those of Dr Connal Parr and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
